Last night, I was watching the live stream from Microsoft HQ. It all started as I suspected with Windows 10, Cortana, Spartan etc… but the thing that really gave the show anything special was the announcement of Microsoft HoloLens. After the announcement it actually became clear to me why Microsoft bought MineCraft. Quoting my 10 year old son, when I told him the news back in September 2014 for $2.5 Billion “What are Microsoft going to do with it?, break it?”Well, during breakfast this AM, I showed my son the HoloLens launch video, and he was blown away. Just like me last night! Looking past the glossy intro video and such, I really think this just changed the IT industry. Kind of like what Apple did to the mobile phone, when iPhone was introduced, and everybody know that story.

The immersive environments are meant to extend into the world around you. Unlike Oculus Rift and other VR solutions, you are not looking into a headset, but looking out in the same room or place you are standing. Magic Leap is trying to achieve something similar, but Microsoft’s product looks like the 1st polished type of full-3D augmented-reality headset announced to date.

HoloLens has boundless opportunities, from medical,design, collaboration and into our living room. It will be interesting to see in 5 years what the HoloLens has done to the IT industry, but my prediction is that it’s a game changer. Not only for the techies that work in this industry, but for doctors, designers to class rooms…

HoloLens will be available in the “Windows 10 timeframe,” according to Kipman over at Microsoft. How developer-oriented it will be or mainstream, remains to be the big question. I hope that Microsoft will launch this product, and have enough of them, just because people are tired of waiting on products.

Virtual reality and augmented reality are technologies that are becoming very real, very fast. We have been fictionalizing such technologies since the 50’s in the movies, so finally things are moving.